Can't Get Crazy Over Halloween

The politically correct strike again. Why is trying to scare someone for fun equated to being insensitive to mental illness? What's next the witches complaining because we depict them as physically unattractive? When will the fairies jump on the homophobia boys in the bandwagon? For pity's sake, can't we lighten up even once a year?

BIRMINGHAM -- A popular haunted house altered one of its attractions this year after mental health advocates complained that the name -- "Slag's Insane Asylum" -- was insensitive to people with mental illnesses.

Operators of Sloss Fright Furnace made the change to "Slag's Un-ending Nightmare" after the state chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill asked its local groups to voice their objections to the old name, which had been used for two years.

Cecelia Laurie, president of the Tuscaloosa branch of the alliance, said mental illness often is viewed as being a character defect, so many who need help for mental disorders don't get it. "There always seems to be that confusion with people thinking that because a person has a mental illness, they're a psychopath," she said. "That has nothing to do with mental illness. And a lot of haunted houses have that theme."

Robert Yarbrough, producer of Sloss Fright Furnace, said he changed the area's name to get rid of the reference to insanity after getting e-mails linked to the complaint. He also said he would change artwork that depicted a man bound by a straitjacket. Yarbrough said he had the attraction changed because he wanted to "get rid of any suggestion of making light, or not taking seriously, mental illness." "We have great respect for NAMI," he told The Tuscaloosa News in a story Wednesday. "We're glad to do the things we did to correct the ad artwork and the facade on the attraction."

Jim Hamilton, associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Alabama, said fear of the mentally ill has historical roots related to the belief that people with mental illness were possessed by demons. "Being taken over by an unseen, untouchable spirit is consistent with the Halloween theme. And the same sorts of ideas historically applied to understanding mental illness," Hamilton said. "It's not surprising that haunted houses have incorporated mentally ill persons in their themes. Nevertheless, it is unacceptable."

From the Montgomery Advertiser.